Rod MacKenzie

EVP, Chief Development Officer, Pfizer Inc.

Rod MacKenzie is Executive Vice President, Chief Development Officer for Pfizer. In this role, Rod is responsible for the development and advancement of Pfizer’s pipeline of medicines in several therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular and metabolic disease, inflammation and immunology, neuroscience, oncology and rare disease. He serves on the Portfolio Strategy and Investment Committee, which focuses on maximizing the return on R&D investment across the Pfizer portfolio, and is a member of Pfizer’s Executive Leadership Team.

Rod joined Pfizer in Sandwich, UK as a Research Scientist and conducted medicinal chemistry research in the cardiovascular, GI, Sexual Health, Urology and Allergy & Respiratory diseases. Rod is the co-inventor of darifenacin (Enablex™).

Rod has held numerous leadership positions at Pfizer, including Head of PharmaTherapeutics Research and Development where he oversaw the Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases, Pain & Sensory Disorders and Neuroscience Research Units and was responsible for all medicinal chemistry at Pfizer, as well as Small Molecule Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacokinetics, Dynamics & Metabolism and Comparative Medicine. He also served as Site Director of the Groton, Connecticut laboratories, Pfizer’s largest global R&D facility. Prior to this role, Rod held a series of research leadership positions, including Senior Vice President and Head of Worldwide Research, Head of Discovery Chemistry in Sandwich, U.K., Head of the Discovery Technology Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Head of Discovery Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Head of Drug Safety R&D.

Rod represents Pfizer on the Board of Directors for ViiV Healthcare, a global specialist HIV company established by GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer to deliver advances in treatment and care for people living with HIV.

Rod graduated from the University of Glasgow with a 1st Class Honors degree in chemistry and completed his PhD at Imperial College, London in 1984. He was awarded a NATO Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and spent two years at Columbia University, New York working in the area of molecular recognition with Professor W.C. Still.